Walking the Tightrope 🕷 Peter Parker [2]

sixteen

Peter

Once Alexandra had fallen asleep, the doctor Mr. Stark had requested came bustling through the door. She was an older woman, maybe in her mid-fifties. She had brown, but graying, hair and a kind face. She wasn't alone. Another woman entered behind her. "Peter, this is Dr. Ruth R. Ford," Tony said.

Peter's eyes lit up. "Hey, your name sounds like—"

"Rutherford," She interrupted. "Yes, I've heard that many times before. I think it's quite funny, don't you?" She smiled at him.

Peter looked past Dr. Ford and at the other woman. "Hi, I'm Peter Parker," He said to the other lady.

"Nice to meet you, Peter," She replied. "My name is Maria. Maria Hill." Maria looked down at Alexandra and sighed. "What's wrong with her?"

Maria Hill... where had Peter heard that name before? He could have sworn he recognized this woman. He just wasn't sure how. Maybe they had met when Tony invited Peter to his NBA party? No, no that wasn't it—

"That's what I'm about to figure out." Dr. Ford began to look over Alexandra. She felt the girl's forehead and sighed, shaking her head. That set Peter's nerves on end. It was never a good sign if the doctor was shaking their head and sighing. She looked at Tony. "You said someone grabbed her and had her tied up for a few hours?"

"Yeah." Mr. Stark nodded.

"And did they do anything to her?"

"Not that I know of. Kid said she was fine when we found her." He shrugged. "The guys who grabbed her weren't even there when Spider-Man found her."

Maria furrowed her eyebrows as they continued to talk back and forth. Peter noticed her eyes scanning over Alexandra's body and then she turned to Peter. "She said that one of the guys that grabbed her was the same one who attacked this place, right?" She asked.

"Yeah," Peter replied. "She said his name was Immanuel, but the other guy didn't say what his name was."

Maria tapped her chin, obviously deep in thought. Then she moved across the room and over to Alexandra. Dr. Ford protested, telling Maria not to mess with her patient but Maria quickly moved strands of Alexandra's hair away from her neck and pointed to a very obvious mark on the back of her neck. "There," She said. "They gave her something."

Dr. Ford's and Mr. Stark's eyes both widened. They looked at each other and then without sharing words began to work to get a blood test done.

"W-wait, they gave her something?" Peter asked worriedly. "What does that mean? They poisoned her?!"

"Calm down, kid," Mr. Stark said to him. "We'll figure this out. She's gonna be fine. We just need to find out what they gave her, okay? Try and take deep breaths." Peter shakily nodded, but did what Mr. Stark said.

He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. No need to panic when Alexandra was in very capable hands. But still—he wanted to know why those guys had stuck a needle in her. Why had they taken her? Was this all some sort of crazy experiment or something more?

The more Peter thought about it, the more questions he had. He needed to get to the bottom of this.

"In the meantime, we should call her parents and let them know." Peter heard Dr. Ford tell the other two adults. This snapped him back to reality and he jumped into action.

"No!" Everyone looked over at him with a raised eyebrow. "I mean—uh—okay, look, Alex doesn't want her parents involved at all. She doesn't want them thinking she can't handle herself. And she for sure doesn't want them to be worried about this."